The Bible did not fall from heaven as a single book: it took shape over about a thousand years, through the pens of some forty authors, in three languages, before the Church recognized these writings as the Word of God and fixed their list. To understand this formation is to understand why Catholics receive 73 books (46 for the Old Testament, 27 for the New) and no other[1].
This article sets out the whole journey: who wrote these books and when according to the received tradition[2], how the text crossed the centuries without being lost, by what criteria the Church discerned the inspired books from other Christian writings, why certain books were set aside, what the Church teaches about inspiration, how Christ fulfills the whole, and how these texts live in the prayer of the Church. A final part presents fairly what modern exegesis proposes, and its limits.
The decisive point can be put in one sentence: the Church did not invent the Bible in the 4th century, she recognized books that Christian communities had already been reading as Scripture since the apostles. The proof is simple: by the middle of the 2nd century, lists were circulating, the Fathers were quoting, assemblies were reading, and even heretics were fighting for or against these same texts.
A Library Received, Not a Book Fallen from Heaven
The 73 Books at a Glance
The Catholic Bible contains 73 books, received in two great parts that tell a single history of salvation: the promise (Old Testament) then the fulfillment (New Testament). The table below gives the overall plan; the book-by-book detail belongs to the article The Bible.
| Part | Groups | Books | Contents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Old Testament (46) | Pentateuch (5) | Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy | Creation, patriarchs, Exodus from Egypt, Law given through Moses |
| Historical books (16) | Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1-2 Samuel, 1-2 Kings, 1-2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Tobit, Judith, Esther, 1-2 Maccabees | History of Israel, from the entry into Canaan to the Maccabean revolt | |
| Poetic and wisdom books (7) | Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth), Song of Songs, Wisdom, Sirach | Prayer, wisdom, meditation on the meaning of life | |
| Prophets (18) | Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Baruch, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi | Calls to conversion and announcements of the coming salvation | |
| New Testament (27) | Gospels (4) | Matthew, Mark, Luke, John | Life, death and resurrection of Jesus |
| Acts (1) | Acts of the Apostles | Birth and expansion of the Church | |
| Letters of Paul (14) | Romans to Philemon, Hebrews | Apostolic teaching to the communities | |
| Catholic letters (7) | James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude | Letters addressed to the whole Church | |
| Revelation (1) | Revelation of John | Prophetic vision of the victory of Christ |
Three Languages, About Forty Authors, a Thousand Years
In other words: the Bible is a library, not a single book. A lawgiver in the desert (Moses), kings in Jerusalem (David, Solomon), prophets in exile (Ezekiel, Daniel), priests returned from captivity (Ezra, Nehemiah), then apostles, a physician (Luke), fishermen from Galilee (Peter, John) and a Pharisee converted on the road to Damascus (Paul): social settings, periods and literary genres vary completely, yet the whole converges toward a single story, the story of salvation. This convergence of authors who never consulted one another, separated by centuries, is already in itself a fact that calls for an explanation[3].
The languages confirm this historical rootedness: Hebrew for most of the Old Testament, with passages in Aramaic (the language spoken in the Near East after the exile, used notably in Daniel and Ezra)[4]; common Greek (koine) for the New Testament, the shared language of the Mediterranean world in the 1st century, which allowed a letter written in Corinth to be read in Rome[5].
Who Wrote the Bible, and When?
The Traditional Position
The received tradition, Jewish and then Christian, attributes the books to known authors and places them at dates close to the events narrated. The Pentateuch is the work of Moses (13th century BC in the traditional chronology of the Exodus)[6]; the historical books follow the history of Israel down to the 2nd century BC (Maccabees); the prophets bear the names of those who spoke in the name of God between the 8th and the 5th century (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the twelve minor prophets); the Psalms are linked to David (11th to 10th century); the wisdom books essentially to Solomon (10th century)[7].
For the New Testament, the tradition is more precise still: Matthew the apostle for the first Gospel, Mark the interpreter of Peter for the second, Luke the companion of Paul for the third Gospel and Acts, John the apostle for the fourth Gospel, three letters and Revelation; Paul for fourteen letters (including the Epistle to the Hebrews, received into the Pauline corpus), James, Peter (two letters), John and Jude for the letters called catholic[8]. The traditional dates place the letters of Paul between 50 and 65, the Synoptic Gospels between 60 and 80, and the writings of John at the end of the 1st century[9].
These attributions are not pious late legends: they were examined and confirmed by the Pontifical Biblical Commission at the beginning of the 20th century, under Saint Pius X, in three famous decisions: 27 June 1906 on the substantial Mosaic authenticity of the Pentateuch, 29 May 1907 on the apostolic authorship of the fourth Gospel, 28 June 1908 on the unity and authorship of the book of Isaiah[10]. A note from the secretary of the Commission, in 1955, would later recall that exegetes enjoy wide freedom of research on literary questions, except where faith and morals are at stake: a permission to inquire, never a condemnation of the traditional position[11].
What the New Testament Says about the Old
The strongest witness in favor of the traditional reading comes from Christ himself, as the Gospels report. To the Jews who search the Scriptures, Jesus declares:
"If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?" (Saint John, quoted in Jn 5:46-47[12])
Jesus thus treats the writings of Moses as real writings by a real author, not as pious fiction. Likewise, he cites Daniel as a prophet who spoke of the coming desolation (Mt 24:15[13]), and he makes the three days of Jonah in the fish the sign of his own resurrection (Mt 12:40[14]): if Jonah were only a fable, the sign would be no sign. After his resurrection, he explains to the disciples that all that concerned him was already written, and he names the three parts of the Jewish Bible of his time:
"Everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled." (Saint Luke, quoted in Lc 24:44[15])
This threefold division (Law, Prophets, Psalms, that is, the Writings) corresponds exactly to the Hebrew Bible: the New Testament thus shows a Jesus who receives the Scriptures of his people as Scriptures, with their authors and their authority.
What the New Testament Says about Itself
From the 1st century, the apostolic writings are treated as Scripture by the apostles themselves. Saint Paul, giving instructions about laborers in the Gospel, cites Deuteronomy and the Gospel of Luke side by side: "The laborer deserves his wages," a word of Jesus recorded in Lc 10:7, is introduced by "For the Scripture says" (1 Tm 5:18[16]). A text about Jesus is thus called Scripture in the very lifetime of the apostles.
Saint Peter goes further: he ranks the letters of Paul among the Scriptures, while acknowledging that they are difficult:
"Speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist, as they do the other Scriptures." (Saint Peter, quoted in 2 P 3:16[17])
And he grounds the authority of prophecy on divine inspiration, not on human will:
"For no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." (Saint Peter, quoted in 2 P 1:21[18])
The exchange of letters between communities (Col 4:16[19]), their public reading (1 Th 5:27[20]) and Paul's charge to Timothy to devote himself to reading (1 Tm 4:13[21]) show an apostolic corpus that circulates, is read and carries authority from the beginning. The formation of the New Testament thus does not begin in the 4th century: it begins in the satchels of the letter bearers, between the years 50 and 100.
How Did the Text Cross the Centuries?
The Scribes of Israel and the Massoretes
Between Moses and us, the text was copied by hand for more than two thousand years. Far from careless copying, this work was surrounded by extraordinary reverence and controls: the Jewish scribes counted the letters of each book, noted the middle letter, and destroyed faulty copies instead of correcting them[22]. After the fall of the Second Temple (AD 70), the scholars called Massoretes (from the Hebrew massora, tradition) definitively fixed the consonantal text, the vocalization and the reading accents, between the seventh and tenth centuries, notably at Tiberias in Galilee[23]. The oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible thus transmitted, the Leningrad Codex (copied in 1008-1009), still remains the working basis of scholarly editions of the Old Testament today[24].
Qumran, the Unhoped-for Check
Until 1947, our oldest complete witnesses to the Hebrew text dated from the Middle Ages: a millennium separated the copies from the originals, and critics concluded that the text must have changed greatly. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, beginning in 1947, in eleven caves near Qumran (explored until 1956), provided the unhoped-for check: nearly a thousand manuscripts, including more than two hundred biblical scrolls two thousand years old, a millennium earlier than the Massoretic copies[25]. The Great Isaiah Scroll (first century BC), more than seven meters long, follows the Massoretic text very closely: the differences concern spelling and copy details, not meaning[26]. Every book of the Hebrew canon is represented there, with the exception of Esther[27]. The complete file is presented in the article The Qumran Manuscripts (Dead Sea, 1947-1956).
The Septuagint and the Vulgate
Two ancient translations played a decisive role in transmission. The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible produced at Alexandria from the third century BC, takes its name from the seventy-two elders who came from Jerusalem to translate the Law, according to the Letter of Aristeas (second century BC), under the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-246 BC)[28]. It is in this Greek version that most New Testament authors quote the Old Testament, and it is this version that transmitted to the Church the books written directly in Greek (Wisdom, 2 Maccabees) or preserved only in Greek (Tobit, Judith, Sirach, Baruch)[29].
The Vulgate, the Latin translation by Saint Jerome (c. 347-420), was begun at Rome in 382 at the request of Pope Damasus I, then continued at Bethlehem until about 405: Jerome translated the Old Testament directly from the Hebrew (the Hebrew truth), breaking with the old Latin versions made from the Greek[30]. In his famous preface called the helmeted (Prologus Galeatus), he defends this return to the Hebrew while receiving the books transmitted by the usage of the Church[31]. The Vulgate became the Bible of the West for a thousand years and was declared the reference text by the Council of Trent; dedicated articles will recount the Septuagint and the Vulgate in detail.
The Great Witnesses of the New Testament
For the New Testament, the manuscript documentation is without equal in all antiquity: thousands of Greek manuscripts, plus the ancient versions (Latin, Syriac, Coptic) and the citations of the Fathers, so abundant that the text could almost be reconstructed from them alone[32]. The table below presents the major witnesses.
| Witness | Date | Content and Significance |
|---|---|---|
| Rylands Papyrus (P52) | about AD 125 | Tiny fragment of the Gospel according to Saint John (Jn 18); the oldest known witness to the New Testament, discovered in Egypt, published in 1935[33] |
| Bodmer and Chester Beatty Papyri | late second to third century | The oldest substantial copies of the Gospels and the letters of Paul (P66, P75, P45, P46)[34] |
| Codex Vaticanus (B) | Fourth century | Almost complete Greek Bible, kept in the Vatican Apostolic Library[35] |
| Codex Sinaiticus (א) | Fourth century | Complete Greek Bible, discovered at Saint Catherine's Monastery in Sinai in the nineteenth century, now in the British Library[36] |
| Codex Alexandrinus (A) | Fifth century | Another great ancient Greek Bible[37] |
| The 50 Copies of Constantine | about 332 | Emperor Constantine orders Eusebius of Caesarea to produce fifty copies of the Scriptures for the churches of Constantinople: imperial distribution begins[38] |
Two episodes frame this transmission. In 303, the persecution edict of Diocletian orders the holy books to be handed over and burned: Christians die rather than hand over the Scriptures, and those who give in (the traditores) cause a lasting schism in Africa[39]. A thousand years later, about 1455, the Gutenberg Bible, printed at Mainz, becomes the first great book of European printing: the text previously copied by hand enters the age of mass distribution, with about one hundred and eighty copies printed[40].
How Did the Church Recognize the Inspired Books?
Three Criteria of Discernment
The Church did not gather one fine day to choose its favorite books: it recognized those that already bore the marks of inspiration. Three criteria, applied consistently from the second to the fourth century, recur in every ancient testimony[41].
Apostolic origin. The book must come from the apostles or their immediate circle: Matthew and John, apostles; Mark, interpreter of Peter; Luke, companion of Paul. This is the testimony of Papias of Hierapolis (c. 70-155), reported by Eusebius: Mark wrote down accurately the preachings of Peter, and Matthew composed the words of the Lord in the Hebrew language[42]. Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-215) passes on the order received from the elders: first the Gospels containing the genealogies (Matthew, Luke), then Mark, finally John[43].
Conformity to the faith (orthodoxy). The book must teach what the apostolic Churches have always believed: one God the Creator, Jesus true God and true man, dead and risen. Any writing that contradicts the rule of faith received from the apostles is set aside, even if it circulates under a great name[44].
Liturgical and universal use. The book must be read publicly in the Churches, everywhere and for a long time, not in one sect or region alone. As Tertullian (c. 155-220) explains: to know what the apostles taught, it suffices to survey the apostolic Churches, those they founded and where their successors still sit[45].
Marcion and the First Crisis
About 144, a rich shipowner excommunicated at Rome, Marcion, proposes the first closed canon in history, by subtraction: he rejects the entire Old Testament (the Creator God there would be an inferior demiurge), keeps of Luke only an expurgated version, and retains only ten letters of Paul, stripped of their Jewish passages[46]. The scandal is immense, and the response of the Church is decisive: Tertullian refutes Marcion point by point in his Against Marcion (about 207), and above all the Church realizes that it must state clearly which books it receives: not one mutilated Gospel and ten selected letters, but the four Gospels, Acts, all the apostolic letters and the entire Old Testament[47]. Paradoxically, it is the heretic who forces the Church to formulate what it was already living.
The Witnesses of the Second Century
The Muratorian Fragment (late second century, about 170-200) is the oldest preserved list of Christian writings received as Scripture. Discovered at Milan by Ludovico Antonio Muratori in 1740, in an eighth-century manuscript from Bobbio Abbey, this Latin text gives the practice of the Church of Rome: four Gospels (the beginning is missing, Luke is cited third, John fourth), Acts, thirteen letters of Paul, Jude, two letters of John, the Wisdom of Solomon, the Apocalypse of John and even the Apocalypse of Peter (with the reservation that some refuse its public reading)[48]. Missing are Hebrews, James, Peter and the third letter of John: the list is not yet closed, but the essentials are already there[49].
Saint Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 130-202), disciple of Polycarp who had himself known the apostle John, affirms about 180, in his Against Heresies, that the Church receives four Gospels, neither more nor fewer: chapter 11 of Book III bears this very title[50]. There he names the four evangelists and reports their traditions: Matthew publishing his Gospel among the Hebrews while Peter and Paul found the Church of Rome, Mark transmitting the preaching of Peter after their departure, Luke writing down the Gospel preached by Paul, John publishing his own at Ephesus[51]. A chain of transmission of two links (John, Polycarp, Irenaeus) thus connects the apostle to the bishop of Lyons.
Eusebius and the Disputed Books
About 325, Eusebius of Caesarea, the first great historian of the Church, surveys the situation in his Ecclesiastical History (III, 25). He sorts the writings into three groups: the books acknowledged by all (homologoumena: the four Gospels, Acts, the fourteen letters of Paul including Hebrews, the first of Peter, the first of John, and the Apocalypse, on which he hesitates in different passages), the disputed books (antilegomena: James, Jude, the second of Peter, the second and third of John), and the rejected writings (apocryphal Gospels, Acts of Paul, Shepherd of Hermas, Apocalypse of Peter), which must be excluded from the canon[52].
The picture is decisive: it shows that the debate concerned only seven short writings, never the Gospels, Acts or the Pauline corpus. And Eusebius honestly reports the hesitations, such as that of Origen (c. 185-254) on the Epistle to the Hebrews: the style is not Paul's, but the thought is Pauline, and "as to who exactly wrote the letter, God knows"[53].
| Status about 325 (Eusebius) | Books | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Acknowledged by all | 4 Gospels, Acts, 13 letters of Paul, 1 Peter, 1 John | The heart of the New Testament is undisputed |
| Hebrews | Placed with Paul | Authorship discussed (Origen), authority received in the East |
| Disputed by some | James, Jude, 2 Peter, 2-3 John | Short writings, slower circulation, finally received |
| Apocalypse | Hesitation | Received in the West, discussed in the East, finally received everywhere |
| Rejected | Apocryphal Gospels, Acts of Paul, Shepherd of Hermas | Sometimes read for edification, never as Scripture |
Athanasius, Hippo, Carthage: the List Closes
At Easter 367, Saint Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, addresses his 39th Festal Letter to his Churches: in it he gives for the first time the exact list of the 27 books of the New Testament as we know it, neither more nor fewer (the four Gospels, Acts, the seven Catholic letters, the fourteen of Paul with Hebrews, the Apocalypse)[54]. This is no invention: Athanasius records universal usage and seals it with his authority.
In the West, the African synods do the same. The synod of Hippo gathered in 393 (canon 36), under the influence of Saint Augustine, then the Third Synod of Carthage in 397 (canon 47), which takes up the list of Hippo, receive the complete canon of both Testaments, deuterocanonical books included[55]. The list had already been formulated at Rome in 382, under Pope Damasus I[56], and it will be confirmed letter by letter: by Pope Innocent I to Bishop Exuperius of Toulouse in 405[57], by the Council of Florence in 1442 (bull Cantate Domino)[58], and solemnly by the Council of Trent, Session IV, on 8 April 1546, which defines that the books must be received entire with all their parts and anathematizes whoever would not receive them[59].
| Date | Step | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| c. 144 | Marcionite crisis at Rome | The Church realizes it must name the books received |
| c. 170-200 | Muratorian Fragment | The essentials of the New Testament already listed at Rome |
| c. 180 | Irenaeus, four Gospels | The four Gospels received, neither more nor fewer |
| c. 325 | Eusebius, survey | Only seven short writings still debated |
| 367 | Athanasius, 39th Festal Letter | First exact list of the 27 books |
| 382 | Rome, under Damasus I | List received by the Church of Rome |
| 393 | Hippo, canon 36 | Complete list received in Africa |
| 397 | Carthage III, canon 47 | Confirmation of the list of Hippo |
| 405 | Innocent I to Exuperius | Pontifical confirmation of the list |
| 1442 | Florence, Cantate Domino | The list recalled to the whole Church |
| 1546 | Trent, Session IV | Solemn definition against Protestant deletions |
Jerome and Augustine: the Two Guardians
Two Fathers sum up the work of the fourth and fifth centuries. Saint Jerome gives the West its Bible (the Vulgate) and passionately defends the scholarly study of the text: his axiom, taken up by Vatican II and by the Catechism, crosses the centuries:
"Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ." (Saint Jerome, prologue to the Commentary on Isaiah[60])
Saint Augustine (c. 354-430), present at the African synods, receives the same list and teaches it in On Christian Doctrine (II, 8); in his correspondence with Jerome (letter 71, about 403), he defends the ecclesial use of the Septuagint while Jerome defends the return to the Hebrew: two complementary fidelities, the unity of the Churches and the truth of the text, which the Church will keep together[61].
Why these books and no others?
The apocrypha of the New Testament
Other Christian writings circulated in the second and third centuries: the Gospel according to Thomas (a collection of sayings, discovered in Coptic at Nag Hammadi in 1945), the Gospel according to Peter, the Gospel according to Philip, the Acts of Paul, the Apocalypse of Peter, the Shepherd of Hermas. Why were they set aside? For precise reasons, never arbitrary ones[62].
First, most of them are late: the Gospel according to Thomas, even if some see ancient sayings in it, is a second-century Gnostic compilation, with no account of the Passion or the Resurrection; the Gospel according to Peter (late second century) makes the cross itself speak at the tomb, a detail that betrays legend[63]. Next, their doctrine contradicts the apostolic faith: salvation comes through a secret knowledge reserved for initiates (gnosis), the body and matter are despised, and the Jesus who walks through these pages is neither truly man nor truly dead[64]. Finally, they were never received everywhere: read here or there for edification (the Shepherd of Hermas was much loved at Rome), they were never read as Scripture by all the Churches together[65].
The case of the Apocalypse of Peter is instructive: the Muratorian fragment mentions it while noting that some refuse its public reading, and Eusebius classes it among the rejected books. The Church therefore examined each case: receiving a disputed book when discernment required it (James, the Apocalypse of John), setting aside a beloved book when the criteria were lacking (the Shepherd). This is not the behavior of an institution imposing its will, but of a mother exercising discernment[66].
The seven disputed books
There remains the question Protestants have raised since the sixteenth century: why do Catholics keep seven more books in the Old Testament (Tobit, Judith, 1-2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, plus the Greek passages of Esther and Daniel)? The answer has three parts: these books stood in the Septuagint, the Greek Bible of the apostles; they were read and quoted as Scripture by the Fathers (the Council of Carthage received them in 397); and the Council of Trent solemnly confirmed them in 1546[67]. The full case, objection by objection, is treated in the article Why do Catholics have seven extra books?.
An inspired Word without error
God as author, man as true author
Fixing the list is not enough: one must still say what an inspired book is. The Second Vatican Council, in the constitution Dei Verbum (18 November 1965), teaches that the Church holds these books as holy and canonical "since, having been written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author"[68]. And it immediately clarifies the mystery of this twofold authorship:
"In composing the sacred books, God chose men and while employed by Him they made use of their powers and abilities, and so with Him acting in them and through them, they, as true authors, consigned to writing everything and only those things which He wanted." (Second Vatican Council, constitution Dei Verbum, § 11[69])
In other words: God is the principal author, but the hagiographer (the sacred author) is a true author, with his own language, culture, style and freedom. That is why the Bible bears the marks of its time (literary genres, images from the ancient world) without the truth it teaches being altered in any way: "For the words of God, expressed in human language, have been made like human discourse, just as the Word of the eternal Father, when He took to Himself the flesh of human weakness, was in like manner made like men" (Dei Verbum, § 13[70]).
Inerrancy and its texts
The Church teaches that these books teach without error the truth God wanted consigned there: this is inerrancy. The magisterial texts form an unbroken chain: Trent receives the books entire with all their parts (1546); Vatican I defines that these books "having been written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, have God as their author" (constitution Dei Filius, ch. 2, 24 April 1870)[71]; Leo XIII, in Providentissimus Deus (18 November 1893), forbids restricting inspiration to certain parts or conceding that the sacred author could have erred[72]; Benedict XV (Spiritus Paraclitus, 1920) and Pius XII (Divino Afflante Spiritu, 1943) reaffirm inerrancy, the latter while broadly opening up the study of literary genres and scientific methods, without yielding anything on inspiration[73].
The formula of Dei Verbum § 11, according to which the books teach "firmly, faithfully, and without error the truth which God wanted put into sacred writings for the sake of salvation", is sometimes read as restricting inerrancy to saving truths alone. That is not the reading of the Church: the statement says why God had this truth consigned (for the sake of our salvation), not to what inerrancy would apply, and the Acts of the Council show that the Fathers explicitly refused to restrict it. One council does not contradict Leo XIII: the hermeneutic of continuity forbids it[74].
The Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes the whole (§§ 105-108: God as author, inspiration, the truth of the text; §§ 109-119: interpretation; § 120: the list of the canon; §§ 131-133: reading Scripture)[75].
Christ, the key to all Scripture
I have not come to abolish, but to fulfill
The Bible can be fully understood only from its center: Jesus Christ. He Himself gives the key in the Sermon on the Mount:
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." (Saint Matthew, quoted at Mt 5:17[76])
The Old Testament is therefore promise, the New fulfillment, and the unity of the two Testaments is the work of the same God. The Letter to the Hebrews opens on this continuity: "In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son" (He 1:1-2[77]).
Reading the Old in the New
The Fathers condensed this reading into a formula that has remained famous:
"The New Testament lies hidden in the Old, and the Old is unveiled in the New." (Saint Augustine, Questions on the Heptateuch, II, 73[78])
Isaac offered in sacrifice foreshadows the Son offered on the cross, the paschal lamb foreshadows the Lamb of God, Jonah three days in the fish foreshadows the Resurrection on the third day, the bronze serpent foreshadows Christ lifted up: these figures of Christ in the Old Testament are not poetic parallels added after the fact, but the very reading the New Testament itself gives of the Old (Jn 3:14; 1 Co 10:1-4; Mt 12:40)[79]. This is the spiritual sense of Scripture, distinct from the literal sense without contradicting it: the article The spiritual sense of Scripture sets out its doctrine and practice.
The Bible in the prayer of the Church
From the synagogue and the apostles onward
The Bible was never a library book reserved for scholars: it was always read aloud before the assembled people. Jesus Himself, in the synagogue at Nazareth, rises to read the prophet Isaiah and declares the word fulfilled (Lc 4:16-21[80]). The apostles keep the custom: Paul urges Timothy to devote himself to public reading (1 Tm 4:13), and the letters circulate and are read from Church to Church.
Around 155, Saint Justin, a converted philosopher turned martyr, describes to the Emperor Antoninus Pius the Sunday Mass of the Christians at Rome: they gather, then they read, then they share the bread:
"And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits." (Saint Justin, First Apology, 67[81])
The memoirs of the Apostles are our Gospels; the writings of the prophets are the Old Testament: the whole Bible is already, by the middle of the second century, the book of the liturgy. The young Augustine, hearing a child's voice singing "take up and read", opened the letters of Paul and found his conversion there (Confessions, VIII, 12[82]).
The lectionary and the Liturgy of the Hours
The Second Vatican Council desired that "the table of God's word be prepared for the faithful with greater abundance" (Sacrosanctum Concilium, § 51[83]): the lectionary issued from the Council (Ordo Lectionum Missae, 1969) spreads the substance of Scripture over three years (Years A, B, C), Old and New Testament, psalms and canticles[84]. Each day, the Liturgy of the Hours makes the Church pray with the 150 psalms spread over four weeks, completed with biblical and patristic readings[85]. The Bible thus formed returns to its first end: not to inform, but to nourish prayer. For choosing an edition and beginning to read it, the article Which Bible should I buy? gives a complete guide.
What modern exegesis proposes, and its limits
The hypotheses in circulation
Since the nineteenth century, part of historical-critical exegesis has proposed redating and reattributing a large part of the biblical books. Fairly stated, the picture is as follows: the Pentateuch would be a compilation of four sources (Yahwist, Elohist, Deuteronomist, Priestly, noted J, E, D, P) assembled after the exile, according to the documentary theory of Julius Wellhausen (History of Israel, vol. I, 1878)[86]; the book of Isaiah would bring together two or three authors (the Second Isaiah of chapters 40 to 55 writing during the exile, according to Bernhard Duhm, commentary of 1892)[87]; the book of Daniel would date from the Maccabean period (second century BC) and would recount the past in the form of prophecy[88]; the Gospels would depend on Mark (the oldest) and on a lost sayings source called Q (from the German Quelle, source), reconstructed from the passages common to Matthew and Luke[89]; several letters of Paul (Ephesians, Pastorals) and the second letter of Peter would be the work of disciples writing under the master's name[90].
These hypotheses dominate university teaching today, including Catholic teaching: the reference manual of the Sulpician Raymond Brown (An Introduction to the New Testament, 1997) presents them with a learning and honesty universally praised, without ever breaking with the faith of the Church[91]. They must be known to understand the present debate. But their weak points must also be weighed, which the manuals mention less often.
The anti-prophetic presupposition
First weak point, and the most decisive: most redatings rest on a philosophical presupposition, not on a discovery. If precise prophecy is judged impossible on principle, then every text predicting the future is necessarily later than the event. This is the argument of the pagan philosopher Porphyry (third century) against Daniel, taken up by Spinoza in the seventeenth century and then by modern exegesis: the reasoning is circular, since it assumes as proven what it claims to prove (that God does not reveal the future)[92]. As Saint Jerome already noted in refuting Porphyry in his Commentary on Daniel, to deny prophecy in the name of reason is to decide in advance that the text is wrong[93].
Circular datings and the argument from silence
Second weak point: circular datings. A text is dated by the theory (such a style would be late, such an idea would presuppose such a period), then the theory is dated by the texts thus dated: the circle closes with no outside anchor[94]. Third weak point: the argument from silence. Because an event is attested only by the Bible (the Exodus, the conquest, such a king), it is concluded that it did not happen: yet absence of proof is not proof of absence, especially for an antiquity whose archives are fragmentary. Archaeology has shown this in reverse: the Tel Dan stele (ninth century BC, discovered in 1993, mentioning the house of David) silenced those who denied even the existence of King David[95].
What the manuscripts changed
Fourth weak point: the manuscript discoveries have aged the text and rejuvenated confidence. The P52 papyrus (around 125) forbids dating the Gospel of John to the mid second century as was still done in the nineteenth century: a copy circulates in Egypt barely twenty-five years after the probable death of the apostle[96]. The Qumran manuscripts showed that the Hebrew text crossed the centuries with a stability that theories of massive late rewriting had not foreseen[97]. And work on first-century Jewish names (Tal Ilan, used by Richard Bauckham) shows that the Gospels bear the exact onomastic mark of the Palestine of Jesus, which a late and distant fiction could not have fabricated[98].
Why the traditional reading remains defensible
Finally, the historical-critical method itself was criticized from within by its best practitioners. Pope Benedict XVI, in the foreword to Jesus of Nazareth (vol. I, 2007), praises what the method contributes but denounces its limits: by cutting the text into hypothetical sources, it misses the real Jesus and rules out by method what faith receives (the Resurrection, the miracles, the divinity)[99]. The Pontifical Biblical Commission, in The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church (1993), calls for going beyond the historical-critical method through synchronic approaches and reading within Tradition, without denying its legitimate gains[100]. And Dei Verbum § 12 gives the golden rule: take literary genres into account, read Scripture in the Spirit in which it was written, and follow the analogy of faith[101].
A measured conclusion: a Catholic may study modern hypotheses, retain their useful literary observations, and firmly hold the traditional attributions and datings. The chain linking Moses to the Masoretes, the apostles to Irenaeus, Irenaeus to the councils and the councils to Trent was never broken. As the great evangelical scholar Frederick Fyvie Bruce wrote, if the New Testament were a collection of secular writings, its authenticity would be judged beyond all doubt, so far does its manuscript base surpass that of all the ancient classics[102].
To go further
This article belongs to a family of biblical articles. To go deeper:
- The Bible at a single glance: The Bible (the 73 books, their dates and authors, the manuscripts, the doctrine of inspiration).
- The seven disputed books: Why do Catholics have seven extra books? (Tobit, Judith, Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch).
- The Qumran check: The Qumran manuscripts (Dead Sea, 1947-1956) (the two-thousand-year-old Hebrew text).
- Reading within the Church: The spiritual sense of Scripture (the four senses, reading in the Spirit) and Which Bible should I buy? (choosing a Catholic edition and beginning to read).
Notes and References
Catechism of the Catholic Church § 120: the complete list called the Canon comprises 46 writings for the Old Testament and 27 for the New (Mame/Plon, Paris, 1992; official text: vatican.va).
1The traditional chronology (Moses in the 13th century BC, Malachi in the 5th, New Testament between 50 and 100) is the one received by Jewish tradition, the Fathers and the liturgy. See James Ussher, Annales Veteris Testamenti (1650), and the Pontifical Biblical Commission dossier cited below [^cbp-1906-1908].
2On this convergence as an indication of inspiration, see Bolloré & Bonnassies, Dieu, la science, les preuves, Trédaniel, 2021, chapter 16, p. 357-396: some forty authors over a millennium, with no possible collaboration, converging on the same history of salvation.
3Aramaic passages: Gn 31, 47 (one word); Jr 10, 11; Dn 2, 4 to 7, 28; Esd 4, 8 to 6, 18 and 7, 12-26. See Franz Rosenthal (ed.), An Aramaic Handbook, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 1967, and the introduction to the Bible de Jérusalem, Cerf, revised ed. 1998, p. 23-25.
4On New Testament Koine Greek, the common Hellenistic language distinct from classical Greek, see Raymond E. Brown, An Introduction to the New Testament, Yale UP, 1997, introduction, section on languages (work presented below [^brown]).
5Unanimous Jewish tradition (Babylonian Talmud, Baba Batra 14b: Moses wrote his book); Christ himself: "Moses wrote" (Jn 5, 46 [^jn-5]); Pontifical Biblical Commission, 27 June 1906 (see [^cbp-1906-1908]).
6Traditional attributions: David and the Psalms (72 psalms bear his name in the heading); Solomon and Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Wisdom (patristic tradition); the named prophets for their books. Pontifical Biblical Commission, 28 June 1908, on the unity of Isaiah (see [^cbp-1906-1908]).
7Patristic attributions: Papias and Irenaeus for the Gospels (see [^papias] and [^irenee-3-1]); Saint Jerome, De viris illustribus (392-393), notices 1-9, for all the apostolic authors (text: Patrologia Latina 23, reprint Cerf, Jérôme, Œuvres).
8Traditional datings: 1 Thessalonians around 50 (earliest preserved letter); Synoptic Gospels between 60 and 80; Johannine writings around 90-100. Even the highest critical datings (Brown) place most of the New Testament in the first century, with the debated exception of 2 Peter (see [^brown]).
9Pontifical Biblical Commission: De mosaica authentia Pentateuchi (27 June 1906); De quarto evangelio (29 May 1907, author: the apostle John); De Isaia (28 June 1908, unity of the book). Texts: Acta Sanctae Sedis 39 (1906), p. 377-378; 40 (1907), p. 383-384; 41 (1908), p. 613-615. Collection: Denzinger-Schönmetzer, §§ 2121-2128 (36th ed., 1976).
10Note by the secretary and undersecretary of the Pontifical Biblical Commission (1955), recalling the full freedom of exegetes on literary questions, except in matters of faith and morals. Cited by Joseph Ratzinger, L'interprétation de la Bible dans l'Église (preface), 1993, and analyzed in the Ignis doctrinal charter (see the library's exegesis dossier).
11Gospel according to Saint John, 5, 45-47, AELF liturgical translation (checked word for word against the local edition), rendered here in English: "Your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. If you believed Moses, you would believe me also, for it is about me that he wrote. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?"
12Gospel according to Saint Matthew, 24, 15 (AELF), rendered here in English: "So when you see the Abomination of Desolation, set up in the holy place, as spoken of by the prophet Daniel..." Jesus calls Daniel a prophet, which rules out a late pious fable.
13Gospel according to Saint Matthew, 12, 40 (AELF), rendered here in English: "For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."
14Gospel according to Saint Luke, 24, 44-47, AELF translation (checked word for word), rendered here in English: "Everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures..."
15First Letter to Timothy, 5, 18, AELF (checked), rendered here in English: "For Scripture says: You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain, and again: The laborer deserves his wages." The first quotation comes from Deuteronomy (25, 4), the second from the Gospel according to Saint Luke (10, 7): both are called Scripture in the same breath.
16Second Letter of Saint Peter, 3, 15-16, AELF (checked), rendered here in English: Peter speaks of the letters of "our beloved brother Paul" and notes that they contain "some things hard to understand" which the ignorant twist "as they do the rest of the Scriptures."
17Second Letter of Saint Peter, 1, 20-21, AELF (checked word for word), rendered here in English: "No prophecy of Scripture can be a matter of private interpretation, since no prophetic message was ever brought by the will of man: it is borne along by the Holy Spirit that men spoke from God."
18Letter to the Colossians, 4, 16 (AELF), rendered here in English: "And when this letter has been read among you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans, and read also the one from Laodicea." The apostolic letters circulated and were read publicly from the very beginning.
19First Letter to the Thessalonians, 5, 27 (AELF), rendered here in English: "I charge you by the Lord: have this letter read to all the brothers."
20First Letter to Timothy, 4, 13 (AELF), rendered here in English: "Until I come, devote yourself to reading, to exhortation, to teaching."
21On scribal controls (letter counts, middle letter, burial of faulty copies in the genizah), see Ernst Würthwein, The Text of the Old Testament, 2nd English ed., Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1995, chap. 1 (translated from the German Der Text des Alten Testaments, 1973).
22The Masoretes of Tiberias (Ben Asher and Ben Naphtali families, 8th-10th century) fixed vowels, accents and marginal notes (massora). See Würthwein, op. cit., chap. 1, and Emanuel Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 3rd ed., Fortress, Minneapolis, 2012, chap. 2.
23Leningrad Codex (National Library of Russia, Saint Petersburg, shelfmark Firkovitch B 19 A), copied in 1008-1009. Basis of the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (1977-1997) and then of the Biblia Hebraica Quinta. The Aleppo Codex (around 930) is older but was partly destroyed in 1947.
24Revised census by Emanuel Tov: about 981 distinct texts in eleven caves (1947-1956), including some two hundred biblical scrolls. Official publication: Discoveries in the Judaean Desert, 40 vols., Oxford UP, 1955-2010. See Émile Puech, Dominican of the École biblique of Jerusalem, coeditor of the DJD.
25The Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIs-a, 1st century BC, 7.34 m) follows the Masoretic text very closely despite a millennium gap. See Eugene Ulrich and Peter Flint, Qumran Cave 1, II: The Isaiah Scrolls, DJD 32, Oxford UP, 2010.
26All the books of the Hebrew canon are attested at Qumran except Esther; Nehemiah alone is missing (Ezra is present). See Emanuel Tov, 1988 article, and the table in James C. VanderKam, The Dead Sea Scrolls Today, 2nd ed., Eerdmans, 2010, p. 48.
27Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates (2nd century BC): seventy-two elders translate the Law at Alexandria under Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-246 BC). Edition: André Pelletier, Lettre d'Aristée à Philocrate, SC 89, Cerf, 1962.
28About three hundred quotations of the Old Testament in the New, most often following the Septuagint (including where it differs from the Masoretic Hebrew). See Henry Barclay Swete, An Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek, Cambridge UP, 1900, reprint 1989, chapter on New Testament quotations.
29Commissioned by Pope Damasus I (382), New Testament revised at Rome, then Old Testament translated from the Hebrew at Bethlehem (390-405). See Pierre Nautin, Jérôme, in Dictionnaire de spiritualité, and the preface to the Bible de Jérusalem, Cerf, 1998, p. 17-19.
30Prologus Galeatus (preface to the Book of Kings, around 391-392): Jerome defends the veritas hebraica there and lists the twenty-two books of the Hebrew canon. Text: Patrologia Latina 28, col. 547-558; French trans.: Jérôme, Préfaces aux livres de la Bible, ed. A. Canellis, SC, Cerf (forthcoming in the series).
31Bruce M. Metzger, The Text of the New Testament, 4th ed. revised by Bart D. Ehrman, Oxford UP, 2005, 384 p.: thousands of Greek manuscripts, ancient versions in about ten languages, massive patristic quotations. No text from classical antiquity comes close to such documentation.
32Rylands Papyrus gr. 457 (P52), fragment of Jn 18, 31-33.37-38, dated around 125 AD by the handwriting, discovered in Egypt, published by Colin H. Roberts, An Unpublished Fragment of the Fourth Gospel, Manchester, 1935.
33Bodmer Papyri (P66, around 200; P75, late 2nd-early 3rd century) and Chester Beatty (P45, P46, P47, 3rd century): the oldest substantial copies of the Gospels and of Paul. See Metzger, op. cit., chap. 2.
34Codex Vaticanus (B, 4th century), Vatican Apostolic Library, Vat. gr. 1209. With Sinaiticus, the basis of modern critical editions (Nestle-Aland).
35Codex Sinaiticus (S, 4th century), discovered by Constantin von Tischendorf at Saint Catherine's Monastery in Sinai (1844, 1859), kept at the British Library (London). Complete facsimile online (international project, 2009).
36Codex Alexandrinus (A, 5th century), British Library, Royal MS 1 D. V-VIII. Given in 1627 to King Charles I by Patriarch Cyril Lucar.
37Eusebius of Caesarea, Life of Constantine, IV, 36 (around 339): the emperor orders fifty copies of the Scriptures for the churches of Constantinople. Text: SC 559, Cerf, 2013 (trans. F. Winkelmann rev.); PG 20.
38Edict of Nicomedia (23 February 303): the holy books must be handed over and burned; Christians who hand them over will be called traditores. See Eusebius, Church History, VIII, 2, and Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors, 11-13 (SC 39, Cerf).
39Latin Bible known as the Gutenberg Bible, Mainz, around 1454-1455 (workshop of Johannes Gutenberg): about one hundred and eighty copies, the first major book printed in Europe. See Jan Thorbecke, Johannes Gutenberg, and the collections of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (vellum copy).
40The three criteria (apostolicity, orthodoxy, catholicity of use) are identified by the history of the canon: see McDonald and Sanders (eds.), The Canon Debate, Hendrickson, 2002, chap. 1-3, and Bruce M. Metzger, The Canon of the New Testament, Oxford UP, 1987, chap. 2.
41Papias of Hierapolis, Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord (lost), fragments preserved by Eusebius, Church History, III, 39, 15-16: Mark, interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately what he retained of the preaching; Matthew composed the sayings in the Hebrew language. Text: SC 31, Cerf, 1952 (trans. G. Bardy).
42Clement of Alexandria, Hypotyposes (lost), quoted by Eusebius, Church History, VI, 14, 5-7: the elders handed down that the Gospels containing the genealogies were written first. Text: SC 41, Cerf, 1955.
43The rule of faith (regula fidei) as a criterion: Irenaeus, Against Heresies, I, 10, 1-2 (summary of the apostolic faith); Tertullian, On the Prescription Against Heretics, 13 (SC 46, Cerf).
44Tertullian, On the Prescription Against Heretics, 36 (around 200): go through the apostolic churches (Corinth, Philippi, Ephesus, Rome), where the chairs of the apostles still preside. Text: SC 46, Cerf, 1957 (trans. P. de Labriolle rev.).
45Marcion (around 85-160), excommunicated at Rome in 144: rejection of the Old Testament, expurgated Gospel of Luke, ten retouched letters of Paul. See Tertullian, Against Marcion, I-II (SC 365, 368, Cerf), and Adolf von Harnack, Marcion: l'évangile du Dieu étranger, 1921 (reprint Cerf, 2003).
46Tertullian, Against Marcion (around 207-208), 5 vols.: systematic refutation which already presupposes the Catholic canon of the four Gospels and of all of Paul. Text: SC 365, 368, 399, Cerf, 1990-2004.
47Muratorian Fragment (end of the 2nd century): four Gospels, Acts, thirteen letters of Paul, Jude, two letters of John, Wisdom, Apocalypse of John, Apocalypse of Peter (with reservation); absent: Hebrews, James, 1-2 Peter, 3 John. Discovered by L. A. Muratori, Antiquitates Italicae, Milan, 1740; 8th-century manuscript, Ambrosian Library, from Bobbio.
48Majority dating: Rome, around 170-200 (allusion to the pontificate of Pius I). A minority proposes the 4th-century East (A. Sundberg, 1968); the early dating remains defended (E. Ferguson, J. Verheyden, 2003 conference). See McDonald and Sanders, The Canon Debate, chap. 7.
49Irenaeus of Lyon, Against Heresies, III, 11, 8 (around 180): the chapter states that the Gospels are four, neither more nor fewer (title confirmed on the English edition of the Fathers: newadvent.org). Critical edition: SC 210-211, Cerf, 1974 (trans. A. Rousseau and L. Doutreleau).
50Irenaeus, Against Heresies, III, 1, 1: traditions on the four evangelists (Matthew among the Hebrews, Mark after Peter and Paul, Luke following Paul, John at Ephesus). Same SC 210-211 edition.
51Eusebius of Caesarea, Church History, III, 25, 1-7 (around 325): homologoumena, antilegomena, rejected books. Text: SC 31, Cerf, 1952.
52Origen, quoted by Eusebius, Church History, VI, 25, 11-14: on the Epistle to the Hebrews, "as to who exactly wrote the letter, God knows." Text: SC 41, Cerf, 1955.
53Athanasius of Alexandria, 39th Festal Letter (Easter 367): first exact list of the 27 books of the New Testament. Greek text: Patrologia Graeca 26, col. 1437-1440; English trans.: monergism.com.
54Hippo 393 (canon 36) and Carthage III 397 (canon 47, repeating Hippo), under the influence of Saint Augustine, present at both assemblies. See Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. III, and the EWTN notice on the decree of Trent recalling these lists (ewtn.com).
55Synod of Rome (382) under Pope Damasus I: so-called Damasine list of the Scriptures (Denzinger, n. 84). See the same EWTN notice.
56Innocent I, letter to Exuperius of Toulouse (405): pontifical confirmation of the list (Denzinger, n. 96).
57Council of Florence, bull Cantate Domino (Decretum pro Jacobitis, 4 February 1442): solemn reminder of the list of the holy books. Text: Denzinger, n. 706; Mansi XXXI.
58Council of Trent, Session IV (8 April 1546), decree Sacrosancta: the books received entire with all their parts, anathema against whoever does not receive them. Text: Denzinger-Schönmetzer, §§ 1501-1508; Conciliorum Œcumenicorum Decreta, Bologna, 1973, p. 663-664.
59Saint Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah, prologue (around 408-410): "Ignoratio Scripturarum, ignoratio Christi est." Patrologia Latina 24, col. 17B; critical ed.: Corpus Christianorum 73-73A, Brepols, 1963. Taken up by Dei Verbum § 25 and CCC § 133.
60Augustine, Letter 71 to Jerome (around 403), § 3-4, on the Septuagint and the unity of the churches; Jerome defends the veritas hebraica. See Augustine, Letters, Bibliothèque augustinienne 46B, 1987; CSEL 34.
61General presentation: Émile de Strycker and the collections of Écrits apocryphes chrétiens, 2 vols., Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Gallimard, 1997-2005 (ed. F. Bovon and P. Geoltrain). Texts, datings and notices per apocryphon.
62Gospel according to Thomas (2nd-century compilation, Coptic from Nag Hammadi, codex II, discovered in 1945); Gospel according to Peter (Akhmim fragment, end of the 2nd century, the talking cross). See Écrits apocryphes chrétiens, vol. I, Pléiade, 1997, notices and introductions.
63The gnosis of the apocrypha (salvation through secret knowledge, contempt for the body) contradicts the apostolic faith in the good creation and in the real incarnation. See Irenaeus, Against Heresies, I (systematic refutation), SC 263-264, Cerf.
64The Shepherd of Hermas (Rome, mid-2nd century), widely read and quoted (Irenaeus, Clement, Origen), never crossed the threshold of the canon: the Muratorian Fragment ranks it among private, not public, readings. See Robert Joly, Hermas, Le Pasteur, SC 53, Cerf, 1958, introduction.
65On this case-by-case discernment (reception of the disputed books, rejection of beloved ones), see Metzger, The Canon of the New Testament, Oxford UP, 1987, chap. 4-6.
66See the article Why do Catholics have seven extra books? for the complete dossier: Septuagint, patristic quotations, Carthage 397, Trent 1546, answer to the Jamnia hypothesis.
67Second Vatican Council, dogmatic constitution Dei Verbum on Divine Revelation (18 November 1965), § 11, rendered here in English: "Holy Mother Church holds the books of the Old and New Testament in their entirety, with all their parts, as sacred and canonical, because, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author... God chose men and made use of their own faculties..." Official text: vatican.va. Adopted by 2 344 votes to 6.
68 69Dei Verbum, § 13: God's condescension in human language. Same official text.
70First Vatican Council, constitution Dei Filius, chap. 2 (24 April 1870): the holy books, "written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, have God as their author" (Denzinger, n. 3006).
71Leo XIII, encyclical Providentissimus Deus on the study of Sacred Scripture (18 November 1893): inspiration of all the parts, refusal to concede error on the part of the sacred author. Text: Acta Sanctae Sedis 26 (1893-1894), p. 269-292.
72Benedict XV, Spiritus Paraclitus (15 September 1920), Acta Apostolicae Sedis 12 (1920), p. 385-422; Pius XII, Divino Afflante Spiritu (30 September 1943), AAS 35 (1943), p. 297-326: inerrancy reaffirmed, scientific methods permitted.
73The Acts of the Council attest the rejection of a restrictive formula (amendments on veritas salutaris rejected). See Augustin Bea, conciliar interventions, and the synthesis by Joseph Ratzinger in L'exégèse biblique et la foi (short form), as well as the Ignis doctrinal charter on inerrancy.
74Catechism of the Catholic Church §§ 105-108 (God as author of Scripture), 109-119 (interpretation, including 115-119 on the four senses), 120 (list of the canon), 131-133 (reading and prayer). Mame/Plon, 1992; vatican.va.
75Gospel according to Saint Matthew, 5, 17, AELF (checked), rendered here in English: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets: I have come not to abolish but to fulfill."
76Letter to the Hebrews, 1, 1-2, AELF (checked word for word), rendered here in English: "In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son..."
77Augustine, Questions on the Heptateuch, II, 73: "Novum Testamentum in Vetere latet, Vetus Testamentum in Novo patet" (the New Testament lies hidden in the Old, the Old is unveiled in the New).
78New Testament examples of figurative reading: the bronze serpent (Jn 3, 14), the manna and the rock (1 Co 10, 1-4), Jonah (Mt 12, 40). A dedicated article on the figures of Christ in the Old Testament will develop this treasure.
79Gospel according to Saint Luke, 4, 16-21: reading of Isaiah (61, 1-2) in the synagogue at Nazareth, then "Today this Scripture that you have heard is fulfilled" (AELF), rendered here in English.
80Justin, First Apology, 67 (around 155, addressed to Emperor Antoninus Pius): "And on the day called Sunday... the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits" (English translation verified on newadvent.org). Greek text: Patrologia Graeca 6.
81Augustine, Confessions, VIII, 12, 29 (around 397-400): "Tolle, lege; tolle, lege" ("Take up and read"), then reading of Rm 13, 13-14 and conversion. Text: Bibliothèque augustinienne 13-14; CCL 27.
82Second Vatican Council, constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium on the liturgy (4 December 1963), § 51: opening the treasures of the Bible more widely to the faithful in the liturgy of the word.
83Ordo Lectionum Missae (1969): three-year cycle (A, B, C) for Sundays, two-year cycle for weekdays, covering most of both Testaments. See the Introduction to the Lectionary (1981), n. 58-110.
84Liturgia Horarum (1971): the 150 psalms spread over four weeks, with continuous biblical readings. See the General Introduction to the Liturgy of the Hours, n. 121-138.
85Julius Wellhausen, Geschichte Israels, vol. I, Reimer, Berlin, 1878 (reissued as Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels, 1883): documentary theory J, E, D, P. Initial magisterial response: Biblical Commission, 1906 (see [^cbp-1906-1908]).
86Bernhard Duhm, Das Buch Jesaia, Göttingen, 1892: distinction between the first Isaiah (chaps. 1-39) and Second Isaiah (chaps. 40-55, exile). Response: Biblical Commission, 1908 (see [^cbp-1906-1908]).
87Dating of Daniel to the Maccabean period (2nd century BC) proposed by part of critical scholarship since Porphyry (see [^porphyre]); tradition places it in the 6th century, during the exile in Babylon, and Christ calls him a prophet ([^mt-24]).
88Two-source theory: priority of Mark, sayings source Q (German Quelle). Developed by C. H. Weisse (1838) and H. J. Holtzmann (1863). Q is attested by no manuscript: a working hypothesis, not a recovered document.
89The pseudepigraphy hypothesis (disciples writing under the name of Paul or Peter) is proposed for Ephesians, the Pastorals and 2 Peter. Catholic response: ancient secretaries wrote under dictation or with real delegation (cf. Rm 16, 22: Tertius, the secretary), and the authority received by the Church decides in favor of substantial authenticity.
90Raymond E. Brown, An Introduction to the New Testament, Yale UP, 1997, 928 p.: loyal and learned presentation of critical hypotheses by a Sulpician priest, member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission. Major Catholic academic reference, including where it discusses traditional positions.
91Porphyry of Tyre (3rd century), Against the Christians (lost, known through his refuters): Daniel is said to be a Maccabean writing disguised as prophecy. Argument taken up by Spinoza (Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, 1670, chap. 8-10) and then by modern criticism. See Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, prologue (ancient refutation, around 407).
92Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, prologue (around 407): refutation of Porphyry, defense of true prophecy. Text: Patrologia Latina 25, col. 491-584; critical ed.: Corpus Christianorum 75A, Brepols, 1964.
93Example of circular reasoning: the style of Second Isaiah is declared late because it names Cyrus (Is 45, 1), then this style is used to prove the text is late. The presupposition (a prophecy by name is impossible) does all the work, with no outside check.
94Tel Dan Stele (9th century BC), Aramaic fragment discovered in 1993, mentioning the house of David (bytdwd). Publication: Avraham Biran and Joseph Naveh, Israel Exploration Journal 43 (1993) and 45 (1995).
95Papyrus P52 (around 125) makes a dating of John after 150 untenable: a copy circulates in Egypt barely a generation after the death of the apostle (around 100 according to tradition). See [^p52].
96The stability of the text between Qumran (1st century BC) and the Masoretes (10th century) contradicts models of massive late rewriting: see [^qumran-isaie].
97Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, Eerdmans, 2006 (2nd ed. 2017): the Gospels depend on nameable eyewitnesses, supported by the onomastics of Tal Ilan, Lexicon of Jewish Names, Mohr Siebeck, 2002.
98Joseph Ratzinger / Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, vol. I, Flammarion, Paris, 2007, foreword: trust in the Gospels as truthful testimonies, criticism of the presuppositions of the historical-critical method, call for a canonical exegesis within the faith of the Church.
99Pontifical Biblical Commission, The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church (15 April 1993, preface by Cardinal Ratzinger): survey of methods, call to go beyond the historical-critical approach through synchronic approaches and ecclesial reading. Text: Cerf, 1994.
100Dei Verbum, § 12: attention to literary genres, reading in the Spirit, analogy of faith. Same official text (vatican.va).
101Frederick Fyvie Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?, 6th ed., Eerdmans, 1981: "The evidence for our New Testament writings is ever so much greater than the evidence for many writings of classical authors... And if the New Testament were a collection of secular writings, their authenticity would generally be regarded as beyond all doubt." (work cited chap. 2).
102